THE FLOWERY KINGDOM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 12, 21 March 1901, Page 6

THE FLOWERY KINGDOM.

BITS OF CHINA OLD AND NEW.

A CRUEL MARTYRDOM. F-^rtfr Lnni* Van TWpV, Prnvinoinl Superior of Eastern Mongolia, has sent a letter, dated September 20, to the Superior-General of hi" O r d e r pnrtnnnc'ng t^nt the Belgian priest, Father Joseph de St. Nicholas, suffered moßt cruel martyrdom on the 24th July last. After undergoing many tortures and ignominies, he was buried alive by order of the Sub-Prefect Lampin Hsern.

THE WORK OF THE BOXERS. Interviewed by the representative of the Tempt, Monsignor Favier, Bishop of Pekin, is represented to have expressed the belief that the Dowager Empress would return to Pekin in the spring. The events of the pa9t few months would, he thought, make the work of Europeans in China eapier. The pagans had suffered much more than the Christians. The Boxers at Pekin killed 30,000 who refused to follow them. They pillaged 2000 native shops and 2i Chinese Banks, and burned a third of Pekin. They wrought similar destruction outside the city.

A TERRIBLE FATE. Many terrible reports have come from China of late, bat perhaps none containing such fearful details as those set forth in the letter of a Sister of Charity with regard to the massacre of the innocents at Wan-tung. She tells how about a hundred little boys had taken refuge there when the place was attacked and fired. The children with two Brothers sought a high terrace, and there defended themselves for several hours, at the same time witnessing the horrible massacre of between 300 and 400 Christians. The church was set on fire, and as the boys were being roasted they had to descend from the terrace. Nearly all were killed, but a few broke through, and, led by a Brother, escaped to the orphanage outside the city at Sha-La. There they begged for help from the Legations, but none could be sent, and all were killed, the place being burnt a couple of days later. The little fellows behaved heroically, refusing to apostatize, despite all threats. This noble conduct on the part of the young recalls the fidelity Bhown amidst tortures by the early martyrs of the Church.

HOW THE BELL-RINGER DIED. One of our Protestant exchanges has the following thrilling account of the deduction of the Catholic cathedral at Pekin by the Boxers .—. — Wink the Protestant missionaries were shut up in the Methodist miMfdon, and other mission premises, including tne Catholic, were being destroyed, rescue parties of marines and some civilians went o'it to bring in the surviving Christiana hiding within the ruined districts. Dr. Morrison, the Pekin correspondent for the London 'J'iiihi, and Professor James of the Imperial University, interested themselves to procure premises where the rescued Christians conld be protected. They got possession of a prince's palace just opposite the British legation and behind and in close proximity to the Japanese and Itnli-in legations. Here were received the long line of Catholic refugi es, who came, torn and bleeding, some wounded unto death, from the neighborhood of the old Catholic mission, with its cathedral .*>ou y^ars old, near the Hsunchile gate. And here, the diplomats were told, was a place prepared for all native Christian refugees from the cruelty of their own people. Here the French Father-", who hnd long foreseen the oncoming crisis and had provisioned and fortified to meet it, kept about 2,000 Catholics within the walls of the cathedral premises, wherein were an orphanage and schools. 1 A thrilling account is given concerning the burning of the old Catholic cathedral mentioned above. It seems that the Catholic missionaries had announced that when the Boxers should appear against them an alarm should be rung by the cathedral bell. Accordingly, when the first mutterings of the storm were heard in that vicinity, the b-llman took his place and rang the alarm ■with might and main. The tire caught the tower and crept to the floor beneath hia feet ; but still he kept the big bell pealing. Then the floor gave way and he and the bell went down together into the flame-wrapped ruin.'